Dance of the Derivatives

By GAIL COLLINS
NYT

The United States Senate. Feel the love.

“... You have been great.”

“... I am grateful, very grateful, for your friendship.”

“... I want everyone to know how deeply committed you are to reform.”

“... I also wanted to thank you for your hard work.”

This was Wednesday at the Senate Agriculture Committee, which was considering the regulation of derivatives. These are extremely complicated financial instruments, and they are under the control of the agriculture committee because, really, when you get right down to it, everything is a crop.

“Members of this committee check their partisan politics at the door,” boasted the chairwoman, Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat of Arkansas. Then, in between compliments, the members approved Lincoln’s bill on derivatives in a series of party-line votes.

(More here.)